The coaching carousel spun so fast this afternoon that the top popped right off and I’ve called a mechanic to get it running again. The first shoe to drop came in Ann Arbor where Michigan announced its new head coach would be none other than Adam Steinberg. Steinberg accepted the job at Arizona State just
nine days ago but apparently within the last 24 hours he decided he wanted to stay at Michigan.
Michigan’s release said Steinberg contacted them to see if he could return while
Arizona State’s release said Steinberg told them he couldn’t continue as its head coach for personal reasons.
I’m sure those personal reasons will eventually come out but for Arizona State it is back to the drawing board. It’ll be interesting to see if ASU opens its search back up or if they go back to the other finalists to see if they are still interested. It’ll also be interesting to see how Steinberg does next season at Michigan because he is going to have to regain the buy-in that he had with the guys before his departure.
I can’t think of any other instances in college tennis where a coach took a job only to leave days later although it’s happened a few times in other sports over the years. Couple of examples that I recall were Billy Donovan (BB) from the University of Florida to the Orlando Magic and back, Bobby Cremins (BB) from Georgia Tech to the College of Charleston and back, Dana Altman (BB) from Creighton to Arkansas and back, and Glen Mason (FB) from Kansas to Georgia and back.
Wichita State announced the hiring of Danny Bryan as its new head coach. Bryan had been at LSU for the last 13 years with the final eight coming as assistant coach. The Shockers won the Missouri Valley Championship this season but Brad Louderback was suspended a few days later and ultimately ended up resigning.
Auburn made a late Friday evening announcement that it had hired Oklahoma assistant coach Bobby Reynolds as its new head coach. Reynolds played collegiately at Vanderbilt for three years and then was on the pro tour for 12 years before making his collegiate coaching debut last season as an assistant at Oklahoma. Reynolds replaced Eric Shore who retired after 26 season.
ATP 250 Nottingham, Great Britain (Grass) – Steve Johnson (USC ’12) advanced to his second career ATP final by winning two matches in one day. Johnson trailed Kevin Anderson (Illinois ’07) 4-3 in the third when played was halted on Thursday due to darkness but once play resumed Johnson won all three games to take it 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-4. A few hours later Johnson was back on court and it only took him 80 minutes to close out #57 Andreas Seppi 6-4, 6-4 – next up is #25 Pablo Cuevas in the final. Johnson’s only previous final came last October in Vienna when he fell to David Ferrer 7-5 in the third.
$25K Tulsa, OK, USA F21 (Hard) – All four semifinalists have college ties after three of the four winners pulled off ranking upsets. TCU’s Cameron Norrie upended the top seed Mitchell Krueger in three sets and will meet former Tennessee Vol Tennys Sandgren after he rolled over recent Tulane graduate Dominik Koepfer. Ryan Haviland played his first Futures event all the back in 2000, when he was still at Stanford, but today the 35-year old advanced to his fifth career semifinal after he came from behind to defeat 18-year old Michael Mmoh 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in 3 hours and 6 minutes. Haviland will face Georgia’s Paul Oosterbaan after the 6 foot 7 inch Bulldog defeated the No. 7 seed Adam El Mihdaway 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Quarterfinals
#640 Cameron Norrie (TCU Rising Jr) def. [1] #238 Mitchell Krueger 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
[3] #329 Tennys Sandgren (Tennessee ’11) def. [Q] Dominik Koepfer (Tulane ’16) 6-1, 6-2
#1070 Ryan Haviland (Stanford ’02) def. [4] #331 Michael Mmoh 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
[Q] Paul Oosterbaan (Georgia Rising Jr) def. [7] #461 Adam El Mihdaway 6-3, 4-6, 6-3
Semifinals
[3] #329 Tennys Sandgren (Tennessee ’11) vs. #640 Cameron Norrie (TCU Rising Jr)
#1070 Ryan Haviland (Stanford ’02) vs. [Q] Paul Oosterbaan (Georgia Rising Jr)
$10K Rochester, NY, USA F20 (Clay) – All but one semifinalist has college ties after Mikael Torpegaard and Thai-Son Kwiatkowski won in straight sets while Juan Benitez Chavarriaga won in three sets over the top seed Gavin Van Peperzeel. Benitez spent a semester at Baylor in 2015 but after only seeing limited action he didn’t come back for another year.
Quarterfinals
#994 Juan Benitez Chavarriaga (Baylor ’15) def. [1] #347 Gavin Van Peperzeel 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-3
[7] #905 Mikael Torpegaard (Ohio St Rising Jr) def. Julian Zlobinsky (Texas Rising Soph) 6-3, 6-1
[WC] #1101 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia Rising Sr) def. [WC] #1531 Marcus Fugate 6-3, 6-1
[2] #411 Kaichi Uchida def. [6] #873 Nathan Pasha (Georgia ’15) 6-4, 6-3
Semifinals
[7] #905 Mikael Torpegaard (Ohio St Rising Jr) vs. #994 Juan Benitez Chavarriaga (Baylor ’15)
[WC] #1101 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia Rising Sr) vs. [2] #411 Kaichi Uchida
$25K Richmond, Canada, F3 (Hard)
Quarterfinals
[1] #289 Jason Jung (Michigan ’11) def. #539 Alexios Halebian 6-3, 6-3
[4] #363 Finn Tearney (Pepperdine ’13) def. [6] #425 Filip Peliwo 7-5, 7-5
#561 Ray Sarmiento (USC ’14) vs. #912 Farris Gosea (Illinois ’15) 6-4, 6-3
Semifinals
[1] #289 Jason Jung (Michigan ’11) vs. [4] #363 Finn Tearney (Pepperdine ’13)
#561 Ray Sarmiento (USC ’14) vs. [5] #356 Peter Polansky
$25K Palma Del Rios, Spain, F18 (Hard) – Remi Boutillier (Fresno State ’12) is into a Futures final for the second week in a row after a walkover win over #300 Pablo Vivero Gonzalez. Boutillier will face #365 Akira Santillan in the finals.
$10K Kaltenkirchen, Germany, F4 (Clay) – Top seed Yannick Maden (Clemson ’13) advanced to his fifth Futures semifinal this year with a 6-4, 6-2 win over #743 Gabor Borsos. Maden will meet Jonas Luetjen (Ole Miss ’13) in the semifinals as Luetjen got a walkover win against Florian Fallert.
$10K Harare, Zimbabwe, F1 (Hard) – Benjamin Lock (Florida State ’16) advanced to his second career final with a 6-4, 6-3 win over the No. 3 seed #421 Hugo Nys. Lock will meet the No. 4 seed #568 Marc Polmans in the final after Polmans defeated Michael Grant (USC ’14) 7-6(6), 6-3.
$10K Barranquilla, Colombia, F2 Futures – Roberto Cid (South Florida ’16) advanced to his second career final after a 6-2, 6-1 win over #731 Gonzalo Villanueva. Cid will face the No. 2 seed #377 Facundo Mena in the finals – Cid defeated Mena 6-2, 6-2 last week in the quarterfinals.
$10K Havre, Belgium, F2 Futures (Clay) – Both Jolan Cailleau (Texas Tech Rising Sr) and Joran Vliegen (East Carolina ’14) fell in the quarterfinals. Cailleau lost to #487 Maxime Authom 6-4, 6-1 while Vliegen lost to #621 Martin Netuschil 6-7(1), 6-1, 7-6(6).
US Open National Playoff Sectionals
Southern Semifinals
[3] Trey Yates (Kentucky Rising Jr) def. [1] Galen Lee (’16 Harvard Commit) 6-1, 6-1
[11] Philip Major def. [4] Zackary Dunkle (Samford ’13) 6-1, 6-4
Texas Semifinals
[3] Eric Rutledge (Rice Redshirt Fresh) def. Tomas Stillman (UTSA ’15) 7-6, 6-7, 7-5
[5] Henry Gordon (Penn State Rising Soph) def. Trey Hilderbrand (HS Class of ’18) 6-4, 7-6(8)
Northern California Quarterfinals
[1] Gage Brymer (UCLA Rising Sr) def. [11] Kial Kaiser (Princeton Rising Jr) 6-0, 6-3
[4] Victor Pham (Columbia Rising Soph) def. [5] Alexander Keyser (’16 Columbia Commit) 6-2, 6-4
[3] Logan Staggs (UCLA Rising Jr) def. [9] Amit Batta (’16 Washington Commit) 6-2, 6-3
[2] Austen Huang (HS Class of ’17) vs. Kailas Shekar (HS Class of ’17) 6-2, 6-3
Semifinals
[1] Gage Brymer (UCLA Rising Sr) def. [4] Victor Pham (Columbia Rising Soph) 6-4, 6-2
[3] Logan Staggs (UCLA Rising Jr) def. [2] Austen Huang (HS Class of ’17) 6-3, 6-4
Steinberg to the team "hey guys im back, just kidding on asu, Michigan is still the best, now let's go beat Iowa, trust me boys I know we can beat Iowa…..damn did I say Iowa, I meant Ohio state….doesn't matter I'm about to take the Princeton job"….imagine the new recruiting pitch
Mark Booras has done a tremendous job resurrecting the Tulane program after Katrina wiped it out for 5 years. He would have been a good candidate at Arizona State but I'm not sure if he's interesting in moving.
Tanasoui to OK
not the Tulane guy?
I would not see Goebel leaving Memphis at all.
If there is an opening these are the guys I'd call to see if there was any interest – Matt Hill (South Florida), Paul Goebel (Memphis), Davidson Kozlowski (Drake), Yaser Zaatini (ETSU), and Matt DuBois (UNCW). All five have been winning and giving bigger names trouble for several years. <br /><br />There are several others beside these 5 that are worthy though many aren't going to leave where they are at (Goswami, Westbrook, Neufeld, Fish, Patton). <br /><br />
Bobby, who are your top 5 mid-major coaches who would be up for some of these Power 5 jobs? Good get by Miami I think with the Piric hire
You guys are painting Auburn as hopeless which I don't get. They were a top 20 team a few years ago with Andreas Mies and Lukas Ollert.
Good luck getting top american kids at Auburn…or at least top 15 TennisRecruiting kids who will actually be able to make a dent in the SEC…too many other good schools with good coaches that are going to pull those kids<br /><br />Auburn's roster is full of very average SEC players…the one bright spot is Juan Sarrio coming in this year, but given the fact they were ranked #64 this year, don't expect an NCAA appearance<br /><br />Bobby will need to do some serious recruiting(INTERNATIONALLY) to get them to be relevant anytime soon, hope he can start pulling the international kids or else the Tigers will fall further into mediocrity
Who will take over the scraps at Oklahoma?
The recipe for continued success(UVA, UCLA, USC, GA,Ohio ST) seems to be a good blend of blue chip/5 star and international. The international players seems to be relatively easier. You could cover that each year just with transfers from Miss St. Once a coach can get into the high end American market as well, that seems to be the seperater. Reynolds has the name and the opportunity to do that now. We will see how good he is or isn't. "The prophet"
yes, but in another post, someone had stated Auburn's roster was mostly international, and this hire should improve his recruitment of blue chip/5 star Americans. We were just discussing if we thought that was true or not.
Brad Dancer is Staying at Illinois.
Hey guys. You know there are these things called international players right?
You are the false prophet Elijah. Bobby is on the right path.
Bobby Reynolds will change that dynamic. For instance, I know of one blue chip rising junior that is coached by Bobby's former coach. He might not land him, but he's getting respect from every Atlanta junior. He will land a few. As far as the ones choosing Iveys, they are not going to Auburn regardless or Georgia for that matter.
Will be hard for Auburn to compete with Georgia's 3 ranked D1 teams (GA State is ranked now too)for blue chips and 5 stars when most players get almost free tuition with Hope-that's before any athletic $.Over the last couple years, the blue chips have gone to GA or FL, and the 5 stars to GA Tech or the Ivy League. For 2016 out of 5 bluechip/5 star, 4 went to ranked teams in state and one to Harvard, for 2017 so far, one blue chip to Ivy, and one 5 star to GA Tech. The one 4 star signed with Auburn is from south GA, not Atlanta.
Brad Dancer to Arizona State
Matt Hill to Arizona State is gaining some traction – we'll see in the coming days if it comes to fruition
The answer lies in Tampa at South Florida…"the prophet"
Why
All the anonymous posts kind of blend in together – you need to go by the Prophet or something. <br /><br />The Reynolds hire is still a little surprising based off all the head coaches they interviewed but as someone else mentioned if he can tap into all the strong players (Blue Chip and 5-stars) in Atlanta he can have Auburn back in the upper third of the conference sooner rather than later.
I saw that yesterday and forgot to include it – I'll put it in Saturday's post – thanks for the reminder.
Hello Bobby, I gave you Feldman to Charlotte weeks in advance. I gave you Reynolds to Auburn and was dismissed. I have given a few transfers… Here is the next one. Roddick took a pay cut to go to Central Florida. $165,000. He has been trying to get out of Oklahoma for 2 years.
Bobby how bout some for the college guys in the dubs final in Tulsa! All 4 finalists played college tennis and Lammons who just graduated from SMU was playing his first tournament as a pro, took the title!